Linda Westcarr is grieving her daughter Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, killed by her partner of nine years, Gogoa Tape, who to the family’s fury, eventually dodged a murder charge
A grieving nan must tell her granddaughter “daddy killed your mummy” after the young woman was strangled by her partner.
Linda Westcarr herself is “still in shock” following the death of Kennedi Westcarr-Sabaroche, who was attacked by possessive Gogoa Tape whom she had been dating for nine years. Linda now acts as guardian for the couple’s daughter, who as a toddler is too young to understand the severity of Tape’s actions.
While Tape, 28, was initially charged with murder, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) amended the count against him to the lesser one of manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. He was yesterday handed an indefinite hospital order having pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility, blaming a mental health disorder precipitated by his habitual cannabis use for a psychotic episode.
Linda described this as “a huge miscarriage of justice” and called evidence to suggest Tape has a mental illness “as flimsy, totally inadequate”. Referring to her granddaughter, Linda added: “Eventually I’m going to have to tell her: ‘Daddy killed your mummy’, but at the moment I’m still grappling with the horror of it and it’s really, really hard. I don’t think I’ve even had time to grieve.”
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After Kennedi, 25, was killed, Tape buckled her into the passenger seat and drove around with her body for nearly two hours, Inner London Crown Court had heard. Although Judge Freya Newbery told Tape his actions on the night of the killing had been “cold and calm,” the defendant was spared jail.
Reacting to this, mum-of-four Linda told the Daily Mail: “I feel absolutely devastated. This is a huge miscarriage of justice. It’s beyond belief that a man my daughter trusted and let into her world has killed her, showed no remorse and wouldn’t even hold his hands up and say he’d murdered her.”
Paying tribute to her youngest child, Linda, from north London, said: “She was a beacon of light and optimism; a loving soul: vibrant, so funny; always dancing. She loved her job in a caring profession and we’d lived together all her life.
“She and I were a unit; compatible, we got on so well. It’s as if I’ve lost my right arm. And it’s not just her death. A child – my granddaughter – has been left behind.”
The court had heard two “fragile” psychiatric assessments were carried out, belatedly, five and seven months after the killing, which concluded Tape could not exercise self-control or form a rational judgment and had probably suffered a “psychotic episode” at the time of the killing.
But Linda, who is a senior education welfare officer, says this evidence was not sufficient. The charge of of murder was downgraded to a lesser one and his trial was abandoned. The mum added: “Justice has not been done; for Kennedi or for our family… The evidence that he has a mental illness is flimsy, totally inadequate. He lived under my roof, even called me ‘mum’ and shared my home with Kennedi for much of their relationship, and I saw no sign that he was mentally ill.”
Judge Newbery had even told Tape, in court yesterday: “You were responsible for Kennedi’s death, but your responsibility was diminished. You were in the grip of a major psychotic illness. Your psychosis wasn’t caused by cannabis use, but it was probably precipitated by it.”
A family member has created a GoFundMe page to help Linda with the costs of raising her granddaughter. To donate, click this link.